The Hero of Many Names
Chapter 1 Lieutenant Hal/Spartan-B312/Noble Six was running up the stairs to man the Onager where he last saw Emile go down fighting some Covies, Hal could hear Emile's laboured dying breaths as he ran up the stairs shooting any hapless Grunts that got in his way with his assault rifle. An Ultra-class energy sword wielding Elite appeared in Hal's line of sight, charging at him, trying to prevent him from reaching the Onager, Hal rolled to the side dodging the plasma blade as it sheared through a metal wall where Hal was standing moments before. Reacting quickly Hal brought out his combat knife, holding it in a reverse grip and stabbed into the sword wielding Elite's eye, the mandible faced creature uttered out a death cry as its eye and brain was pierced by the combat knife. As the Elite slumped down on the floor gurgling its last breath, Hal looked at the energy sword silently debating whether to take it or not; deciding on the former, Hal took the energy sword, clipping it to his waist, Hal then raced up the stairs towards the Onager and where Emile was. Hal then sighted Emile's slumped body propped up against a wall with his faithful kukri knife near his hand. Hal gave a sigh and said to Emile's dead body "Rest well Emile, your death won't be in vain" he said and took Emile's kukri and sheath. Manning the Onager, Hal fired shot after shot at the Covenant drop ships, so that they wouldn't get anywhere near the Pillar of Autumn, while waiting for the Covenant battle cruiser to come closer so he could fire off a shot at the glowing centre of it. "C'mon you fucking split-lipped bastards, a little closer" Hal said as he fired off another shot at a Covenant drop ship. "A littler more, a little more" he muttered as he aimed at the battle cruiser. The battle cruiser was now within range, Hal aimed as quickly as the Onager would allow him to, aiming for the glowing centre of it and opened fire; the Onager round screamed through the air and hit the glowing centre of the Covenant battle cruiser, causing an almighty explosion, thus clearing the way for Autumn to escape. Sighing with relief that the Autumn was now able to get away but fully realising that he had doomed himself, Hal climbed out of the Onager cockpit and checked his equipment, weaponry and ammunition; so far he was fully stocked with four grenades of each type, he had a good supply of ammo for his assault rifle and DMR rifle, his sprint module was fully operational, his newly acquired energy sword had 90% power to it, he had his combat knife and Emile's kukri knife and his energy shields and MJOLNIR armour were fully operational. Hal gave himself a cynical smile as he remembered an old saying when it came to the Spartans; Spartans don't die; they're just missing in action. Making his way down to the ground, ready to meet his maker in glorious combat. "C'mon, you split-lipped sods! Come and get me!" Hal shouted as he fired his DMR at some Grunts, scoring a couple of headshots, the Covies took note of Hal's presence and immediately began to converge on his location, swarming like maggots over a fresh dead body. Hal took up position behind some ruined brick walls and picked off targets with his DMR, conserving his grenades. Elites soon came onto the scene firing off salvos of plasma from the weapons, Hal fired off a few shots at them, trying in vain to take down their energy shields, an Elite surprised Hal by jumping onto the ground near him. "Shit fuck!" Hal shouted as he unloaded a clip of his assault rifle into the Elite, at such close range the Elite's energy shields didn't last long and when the full metal jacket rounds met flesh, the Elite may as well have just written its own funeral eulogy. Wraith tanks began to fire upon Hal's location. "Fuck, why me?" Hal muttered as he prepared to meet his maker, ready to go down guns blazing, when suddenly he noticed a cave opening, not far from his position. Seeing it as his only chance of escape from glassing, Hal primed two grenades, a frag and a plasma grenade, standing up in plain view of the Covies, Hal threw the two spheres of destruction as hard as he could at his enemies and ran for it as if the hounds of hell were on his feet. Using his sprint module to make a mad dash for the cave entrance, Hal primed another grenade and as soon as he was past the entrance of the cave, he tossed it behind him and ran further into the cave. The resulting explosion from the grenade caved in the entrance, leaving Hal in pitch black darkness, activating his helmet lights, Hal looked around his surroundings, so far the cavern was leading downwards. "Well, guess downwards is better than up there" Hal muttered and he trudged down the earthy passage. Keeping his assault rifle ready in front of him with the safety off, Hal looked around furtively as he progressed through the passage; soon Hal came to a strange room. It was large and spacious and strangely an odd light was coming from the centre of the room, it was a stone dais; it bore a strange crest of an inverted S with two large glowing blue gems set in the stone on either side. "Strange, the energy readings from this don't correspond with anything known to man, I wonder what it is? Maybe a Covenant energy source?" Hal asked himself. Tentatively stepping onto the stone dais, Hal watched as the glowing seem to become brighter as he stepped onto the dais. When he was standing in the centre of it, the dais then flashed with light and a burning sensation hit Hal; gritting his teeth in pain from the burning sensation, but the pain grew until Hal roared out with pain and passed out from the pain overload. Meanwhile… It had been ten years since Sparrow had left Bowerstone, ten years since the night her sister Rose had died at the hands of the madman, Lord Lucien, ten long years Sparrow had spent at the gypsy camp with her guide and mentor Theresa the blind seer and of course her faithful furry friend Sunny the Dog. Theresa had tutored Sparrow in the ways of a Hero, how to wield a sword, a hammer, an axe, a mace, a pistol, a rifle and a crossbow along with other lessons. Sparrow was a quick learner and was eager to learn combat but was a little impatient and bored when it came to academic subjects such writing, arithmetic and such but Theresa was a patient teacher and let Sparrow learn at her own pace, so now Sparrow was intelligent… relatively. Theresa had spoken with Sparrow and given some starting equipment, well they would barely able to call themselves equipment, the longsword was rusty, the crossbow was splintered and aged, the shovel looked as though it would break if it touched the soil, and the placebo health potion looked as though it was made of water and red food dye which it was probably made of. On the plus side the Guild Seal that Theresa had given her looked to be in good condition. After departing for the outside world, Sparrow had some luck when Sunny smelled out some treasure consisting of an amethyst which looked like it could fetch a good price despite the fact that amethysts were a pretty common gem nowadays. Taking a short swim to the Bower Lake Tomb and opening the door, Sparrow was a little surprised when she heard Theresa's voice in her mind, speaking to her through the Guild Seal. Jumping down a hole into a large body of water with Sunny following close behind, Sparrow made her way to the nearest spot of dry land and proceeded into the next part of the cave. After traversing through a passage, some beetles popped out of the ground giving Sparrow her first fight. Sparrow drew her rusty longsword and prepared to fight. The fight didn't last long, either Sparrow was a skilled fighter or the beetles were piss weak or maybe both, Sparrow gave a huff after the fight and said to herself "Is that all?" she asked rhetorically and proceeded further into the cave system. After a few more beetles killed by either her sword or crossbow, Sparrow then came across a locked door with something called a 'flit switch' being the locking, heeding Theresa's advice and hitting it with her sword made the door open, opening the way. Lightly jogging down the passage, Sparrow reached another door in the shape of a circular dais, there were two different flit switches, one being blue for the sign of Strength and the other yellow for the sign of Skill; using her sword and crossbow to hit the switches, the door opened and the way was open. Proceeding further Sparrow was soon walking a stone pathway that didn't look as though it were part of a cave. Theresa's voice spoke to her again "You are now entering the remains of the Heroes Guild, it has been centuries since someone has entered these hallow halls and now… wait… there's something in there" ''Theresa's voice said, "Like what? Another person? Another Hero like me?" Sparrow asked. "Perhaps, it is something… strange yet strong, far stronger than a normal human but I do not feel any evil emanating from it, go inside and see what you can find out, but be cautious" Theresa's voice replied.'' Sparrow proceeded to go inside with Sunny following whimpering in fear; Sparrow gave Sunny a reassuring scratch behind the ears to which he perked up and gave a happy bark. Sparrow took out her crossbow and readied an arrow in it and walked cautiously forward further to see what had entered the Heroes Guild. Sparrow gave a gasp at what she saw. To be continued…